London: Perfect pad for a boy band

After a short-lived spree of pop-star extravagance, Simon Webbe of Blue is now busy building his property portfolio in Maida Vale, says Giles Hattersley

Though I’m told this red and white block in London’s Maida Vale is now une destination favorite for our second- division celebrities, when I cross the tarmac between the busy road and its front door I see neither bouncers nor leery soap stars. Shame.

Then I remember Fourwestnine is not a nightclub but a pricey little residential development of 42 apartments only a Manolo’s step from the West End. People are whispering that Tara Palmer-Tomkinson might be moving in.

“Really?” grins Simon Webbe, 25-year-old resident and member of the boy band Blue. I’m inside now, sat in his show flat on sofas so bland I expect Linda Barker tinkered with their design. “I’ll have to try and persuade her.”

Fourwestnine is an unlikely haunt for the professionally glamorous. It has no architectural flourishes or statement interiors. It’s a blink-and-you’d-miss-it sort of affair. Webbe has treated himself to three of these